Poswob Ethnographical Questionnaire

Poswob Ethnographical Questionnaire

Dr. Zahar’s Ethnographical Questionnaire was compiled by David Zahir to help in the description of concultures, and can be found in the files section of the Conculture group at Yahoo.

Questions of Place

Describe the geography of where your society calls home.

The Poswob Empire (no native name yet, sorry :) is very large for its time period, about the size of the continental USA. However, Poswobs live mostly along rivers and lakes, with vast interior areas remaining essentially wilderness. Furthermore, the expansion to its present size was quite recent; previously the empire was mostly just the south coast of Rilola.

Describe the climate your society deals with. How severe are their seasons?

The Poswob Empire stretches from subtropical climates at about 25N (where the population density is highest) all the way to the glaciers of the Arctic. Also, there are settlements in high mountain ranges. Some of the islands along the south coast have maritime climates with little seasonal variation in rainfall or temperature, and thus would be considered "tropical" by most, though technically the correct classification even here is subtropical.

What kinds of natural disasters has this society gotten used to?

Not much. As said before, the empire is quite large, so it has experience with volcanoes, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, blizzards, floods, and droughts, .... but for the most part the humans have not settled in the areas that are most prone to these types of disasters. Even the hurricanes are not really much of a problem because the subtropical south coast is sheltered from the open ocean by other coastal areas that extend further south (granted, this didnt save Louisiana from Katrina).

What foods are considered exotic or expensive?

Meat, of any land animal, is expensive. In the capital city of Blop, it is common to see the same vendor selling cooked fish meat for 1/10 the price per pound of meats such as beef and chicken. This is due to the cultural taboo/prohibition against killing animals, so that all meat has to come from animals that died of natural causes (though there are some quasi-domesticated "farms" the animals there are not raised in enormous groups the way they are in modern Earth societies).

Is there usually enough food and water for the population?

Yes, despite the very low level of technology, there has never been a famine in Blop or any other northern settlement, and famines in the more heavily populated southern states really just mean that people can't get the foods they want, not that they can't get food at all.

How do people travel from one place to another?

Mostly by boat, sometimes horses or camels can be used to travel over land.

Are the borders secure? In what way?

The Poswob Empire is pretty much undefended, because the population believes in a strongly pacifistic religion and political philosophy, but they don't have many enemies either. Most foreigners would rather enslave Poswobs than conquer them and disrupt their government. The Poswobs live to the east of another empire called Kuroras. They allow the Kuroras people to more or less step on them and do whatever they want, because 4000 years ago the Kuroras warriors saved them in a war that would have brought them to extinction. This means the Kuroras people can enslave the Poswobs, but on the other hands, the Kuroras people are responsible for protecting the Poswobs from other empires who would also want to enslave them.

How many people live here?

The city of Blop has about 50,000 people; the whole empire is close to 1 million.

Questions of Faith

What superstitions are common? What kinds of supernatural

events/beings do people fear?